Nappy Washing Survey – Provisional Results

Summary 3 washing/drying practices were associated with fewer reported smells (p<0.05). Higher temperature washes, hot tumble drying, more nappies in wash Hot tumble drying seems to help our respondents avoid rough nappies (p<0.05). Eco washes were associated with rough nappies. (p<0.05). A huge thank you to Emily Griffiths for designing the questionnaire and doing the …

Shirley Technologies Results

Summary In our previous experiments, we got five nappies tested in a lab, and found that two of them were 20% by weight hydroxl apatite (HA), so we decided to get a few more nappies tested. This time around the nappies contained 1-5% minerals after the ash test. Some of this was Hydroxyl apatite, and …

Results from Cardiff Catalysis Institute (CCI)

Summary Hydroxyapatite (HA) build up was confirmed on the real world nappy samples (same nappies as Shirley Technologies tested last year). Zinc was also found evenly distributed across Nappy D A laboratory method was developed to create HA mineral build up artificially. They used several solutions – all were water with different amounts of calcium …

pH Test Results

Summary Most of the things we tested were around ph 6 or 7 (i.e. Neutral). We found a general trend for nappies to become more alkaline (pH greater than 7), the longer they were in the dry pail. We know that alkaline conditions promote the formation of Hydroxl Apatite (HA), so perhaps HA is forming …

HA solubility – email chat with Prof Brian Darvell

Brian Darvell is Honorary Professor at the Birmingham University School of Dentistry. He has been involved in research and teaching in Dental Materials Science since 1969.  His work has covered many areas, but his greatest interest (which started as his post-doc study in 1975) is the solubility of calcium phosphates, and especially that of hydroxyapatite. He …

How bacteria and HA interact: A Live chat with Elaine Berry and Greg Siragusa

In this live chat we spoke to Elaine Berry and Greg Siragusa about their work using hydroxl apatite to concentrate bacteria.  Elaine is a Research Microbiologist at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center. Greg is a Senior Principal Scientist at Eurofins Microbiology Laboratories. In 1997 they wrote a paper about using hydroxyl apatite to concentrate …

HA in Laundry: Live chat with Ian

In this live chat we spoke to Ian Strudwick about HA and washing Laundry. Ian is technical manager at Shirley Technologies [the company that tested the nappies for us last year, and discovered the very high buildup of hydroxyl apatite]. He did a live chat with us once before, on his work and on laundry washing …

Things I wish I’d known about using cloth nappies

We asked Nappy Science Gang “What's the one thing you wish someone had told you when you first started using cloth?” and here are their replies: (NB: some contradictions – but that’s opinion for you!) Buying Nappies  Not to buy too many of one brand. To buy a couple of each you like the look …